Panelled doors or shutters can be slightly emphasized by painting them in three shades of off-white, using the palest color on the frame, a slightly darker shade on the panels and a marginally darker shade again on the mouldings. The rest of the woodwork should be off-white to co-ordinate the room.
    
BE ADVENTUROUS WITH COLOR
It is no good hoping that neutral colors, plain walls and sparse furniture will automatically make a room appear larger or more interesting. It is often better to fill a room with warm colors, strong textures and plenty of books and objects. There are lots of other colors you can use rather than white or pastels and, since paint is the cheapest form of decorating, if you don’t like the result you can always paint over it again. So why not be a little adventurous?
    No matter what the color rules may say, your taste is what counts in your own home. Although many people feel quite confident when buying clothes, they are uncertain when it comes to choosing colors and fabrics, largely through lack of practice and experience. Once you start thinking in terms of color, interesting combinations will begin to jump from magazines, posters, fabrics, fashion, flowers, leaves, art galleries and even church windows.
    Use your camera. Take pictures of color combinations which intrigue you, buy a small notebook and make notes. Remember that there is no such thing as ‘brown’ or ‘blue’. Brown can be the color of bread or the color of mud, the color of boot polish or a shiny conker. Blue may be sea blue or midnight blue, grey-blue or that wonderful faded greeny blue, bleached by the sun, found on shutters and doors in the Mediterranean. Colors can also be matt or shiny. All have an infinte variety of tones which react differently to different tones of other colors. It is fascinating to experiment.

    Remember too, that what suits an elegant 18th century room with tall ceilings and generous proportions may not be appropriate for a small, square room with low ceilings. It can be great help to make a color board out of a piece of hardboard or stout card, and to pin onto it paint samples and pieces of fabric. Change them about, add to them and take some away until you have a group of colors (and textures) which really pleases you. Keep to one main color and one secondary color, or variations of your two colors, perhaps with white as a link.
    If you want to create a feeling of space, concentrate on those cool blues and greys which recede into the background. If you prefer to make the room fun to be in and don’t care about spaciousness, try a combination of bright, primary colors. Brilliant yellow will give a feeling or warmth, deep blue a felling of tranquility, and a balance can be provided with reds and greens in the furniture and fabrics.
    In a tiny kitchen, one bright color can provide a cheerful background for attractive cooking equipment stored on open shelves and hung from hooks, rather than hidden away in cupboards. The kitchen shown on page 7 is a large alcove off a living room and has been created in a piecemeal way, making use of the sloping ceiling to house cupboards which once had another existence in an office. The red wall helps to co-ordinate everything and to give the room an identity of its own, separate to that of the main living room.

SUBTLE PATTERN EFFECTS
Many homes are over-full of shapes, patterns and colors, all shouting for attention. Furniture, wallpaper, books, pictures, fabrics, hi fi, etc. can all add up to a very busy and unrestful feeling.
    In small spaces where there is a lot going on, background pattern should be kept very much in the background although it need not be eliminated altogether and, indeed, can be useful in covering up poor plasterwork or boring shapes. Textured wallpaper, seemingly made up of pimples, is used far too often to hide blemishes in the walls when the blemishes them selves would be far less hideous than the wallpaper. Instead, to add pattern by painting is cheap, comparatively easy and very satisfying. Decorative and interesting effects can be achieved by various methods, such as sponging, stippling, marbling, antiquing and dragging. These all give character and do not look as ‘dead’ as flat paint. They will also help to conceal uneven walls.